JUSTIFYING LATTER-DAY REVELATION Ed Dye I. INTRODUCTION 1. Is the Bible the complete, all-sufficient, inerrant, verbally inspired revelation of God s will to man? 2. Or, is it only a partial, incomplete revelation of God s will to man leaving a vacuum to be filled by latter-day revelations? 3. There are multitudes of people who profess to believe the Bible, yet hold to the second position and seek to justify latter-day revelation, either of the oral or the written variety, or both. 4. In this lesson we shall examine this issue. First, we shall consider what the Bible claims for itself on this matter. Then, how some people who profess to believe the Bible seek to justify latter-day revelation in spite of what the Bible teaches about its completeness and all-sufficiency. II. DISCUSSION A. FIRST, THE BIBLE S CLAIM TO BE THE COMPLETE, ALL- SUFFICIENT, INERRANT, VERBALLY INSPIRED, REVELATION OF GOD S WILL TO MAN. 1. From the Father to the Son by means of the Holy Spirit, Deut.18:18-20; Ac.3:19-24; Mt.3:16,17; 17:5; Mt.18:18-20; Heb.1:1-3; Lk.4:18,19; Isa.11:1,2; Mt.12:28; Lk.11:20; Jno.1:32,33. 2. From the Son to the Apostles by means of the Holy Spirit, to the written word, Jno.14:26; 15:26,27; 16:7-15; 17:4-8,14,17-22; 1Cor.2:9-13; 14:37; Gal.1:6-12; Eph.3:1-5; 2Pet.1:16-21; 1Jno.1:1-3. 3. The Scripture given by inspiration of God ( God-breathed ) is complete and all-sufficient and understandable, 2Tim.3:16,17; Jude 3; Eph.3:3,4; 5:17. 4. This leaves no vacuum to be filled by, room for, or authority for latter-day revelations of any kind, whether oral or written! 5. To justify latter-day revelations one must either deny the Bible outright, seek to discredit it in some way, or seek to prove it
really doesn t mean what it says pertaining to being God s complete, all-sufficient revelation to man. 6. This is exactly what men have done and are doing. B. 2 ND, A LOOK AT SOME OF THE VARIOUS HUMAN EFFORTS SEEKING TO JUSTIFY LATTER-DAY REVELATION, ESPECIALLY THE EFFORTS OF MORMONISM. 1. 1 st, note some of the efforts of various so-called God-called preachers of Denominationalism. 2. 2 nd, the efforts of Roman Catholicism (quotes from Catholic books issued with the approval of their book censor and the Imprimatur of her men of authority, or official license to print) a. Tradition is to be held as the highest authority in the church, even above the Bible: Other spiritual books are preferred. (Plain Facts For Fair Minds, Searle, p.154) b. The very nature of the Bible ought to prove to any thinking man the impossibility of its being the one safe method to find out what the Savior taught. (Question Box, 67, 1913 edition) c. The Bible does not pretend to be a formulary of belief, as is a creed or a catechism. There is nowhere in the N.T. a clear methodical statement of the teaching of Christ. (Question Box, 66) d. The Bible was not intended to be a textbook of the Christian religion. (Catholic Facts, 50) e. In other spiritual books the truths of the Bible are presented more fully, and in a more modern and familiar style, so that we can hardly wonder that they are, as a rule preferred; and that though Catholic families generally have a Bible, it is more venerated than read. (Plain Facts, 154). f. They (the Apostles) consigned to unwritten tradition many revealed truths and thus made the Church from the beginning independent (emp. mine, ejd) of their
writings. (History of the Church of God, B.J. Spalding, 25). g. The Pope, not the Bible, is the authority in the Catholic church: The Pope s letter is the most weighty authority in the church (Cardinal Gibbons, in Faith of Our Fathers, 116). h. The Catholic doctrine ex cathedra, meaning with full authority (esp. of a papal pronouncement, implying infallibility as doctrinally defined). Latin, from the chair allows or justifies latter-day revelations according to Catholic doctrine! i. Is it not strange that if Christianity were to be learned from the Bible only, that Christ himself never wrote a line or ever commanded his apostles to write; for their divine commission was not to write but to preach the gospel Again, it has ever been practically impossible for men, generally, to find out Christ from the Bible only (Question Box, 70, 1913 edition). 3. How Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, and other Mormon officials, justify creating a place for the Book of Mormon as a latter-day revelation of God s will. a. Smith had the Lord say through him, Thou fool, that shall say, A Bible, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible, 2Nephi12:7. (1) Thus he claimed the Lord told him that the person who is satisfied with the Bible alone as God s allsufficient revelation to man and guide in religion is a fool! b. Smith, professing inspiration from God, also claimed that the Bible in its present form has been corrupted. For though it once contained the plainness of the gospel of the Lord they (a great and abominable church, meaning the Catholic church, ejd) have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb, many parts which are plain and most precious there are many plain and precious things taken away from the book, which is the book of the Lamb of God because of these things which are taken out of the gospel of the Lamb, an exceeding great many do stumble, yea insomuch that Satan hath great power over them,
1Nephi13:26-40. This tells us that the Bible in its present form :-- (1) Did at one time contain the truth, the plainness of the gospel. (2) That it no longer contains the truth. That it has been so mutilated that the right ways of the Lord are perverted, eyes blinded, hearts hardened, many caused to stumble, and, as a result, the devil has been given great power over them power over them he would not otherwise have. (3) That the Bible in its present form is responsible for all of this! c. Orson Pratt, one of the original twelve Apostles of the Mormon body, wrote: What few have come down to our day, have been mutilated, changed and corrupted, in such a shameful manner that no two manuscripts agree. Verses and even whole chapters have been added by unknown persons who knows that even one verse of the whole Bible has escaped pollution, so as to convey the same sense now that it did in the original? Orson Pratt s Works, 1899 Edition, p.140 (1) It is most interesting to note that in spite of Orson Pratt s suggesting the possibility that not even one verse of the whole Bible has escaped pollution, the Book of Mormon contains hundreds, perhaps thousands, of quotations from the Bible. (2) In fact, the Book of Mormon contains 26 complete chapters quoted verbatim from the Bible. These are: Isaiah chapters 2 thru 14,18,19,21,48 thru 52, 54; Matthew chapters 5 thru 7; and 1Cor.13. (3) If Mr. Pratt s statement is true and the Bible is so tainted, so corrupted as to make it untrustworthy, then the Book of Mormon must also be corrupted and untrustworthy since it contains so much of the Bible! d. In view of this, why would Mormonism try to deceive us into thinking: a. According to their perversion of Ezek.37:15-22 that the Bible and the Book of Mormon are
ordained of God to be one in guiding man religiously? b. They believe the Bible in its present form when they come to your door trying to convert you to Mormonism? III. CONCLUSION 1. Virtually every type and form of false religion in one form or another: a. Either outright denies the Bible is God s word to man. b. Or claims it doesn t really mean what it claims about being the complete, all-sufficient, inerrant, verbally inspired revelation of God s will to man, thus there is a vacuum left to be filled by latter-day revelations. c. Or claims it has been mutilated, tainted, changed and thus corrupted; therefore, in its present form it is not trustworthy as our religious guide. 2. Then based on such outright denials or such false claims they seek to justify some form of latter-day revelation, either oral or written or both. 3. This is what: a. So-called God-called Denominational preachers and Denominational churches have done and are doing! b. Other humanly organized churches or religions, that claim no connection with Denominational churches, have done and are doing! c. Roman Catholicism has done and is doing! d. Mormonism has done and is doing!